1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an autonomous moving robot, and in particular to an autonomous moving robot having a body to which is coupled a head with ears.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, autonomous moving robots have been proposed which are designed to communicate with a human by expressing an emotion by means of, for example, flashing in a predetermined flashing pattern a plurality of LEDs located at positions functioning as pseudo eyes in response to, for example, a human body motion, and further to make a predetermined motion in response to a speech to the robot by the human. One such example is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 2002-120181 (FIGS. 1 and 3).
A robot device (pet robot) as disclosed in the above-mentioned patent document uses a microphone that functions as an “ear” for inputting a human voice, to make preset movements based on the input voice information. However, the robot device had a demerit that in the initial phase of turning on the robot from an off state, the human could not judge whether or not the sound input means including the microphone functioning as the “ear” of the robot device was functioning in a normal manner, until the human talks to the device which in response makes a predetermined movement.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an autonomous moving robot that allows the human to easily check the initial status of the sound input means in the initial stage when the robot device is turned on and activated.